ram3500-RCU

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Very cool guys.

JRMS

Seeing the size of the drawings samparfitt is working from in his Yellow P-38 build thread is good.
I had found them on the internet as a page and didn't find anything close to the size he is using.
I'll have to give his thread a more thorough read to see where they are from.
I had bought some of the material for the ladder and latch release last week.
And here is some of my home reference material

JRMS

Just a heads up for those of you that encounter a plane like the green Nitro P-38. I'm referring to the shinny MonoKote-Like covering
that is painted over with a flat matt paint. It can be scratched off.[:@] And tends to show handling, just the oil in your hands seams
to darken the paint. Even with using tape that is designed to easily be removed from paint, pealing can occur. I thought I could get
away with out having to do any spray painting. But with all the extra handling I'm doing won't let me just use a touch up brush.

rc-hide-n-hope

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Hi to all, I was cruising your thread and noticed that www.hobby4less. com looked awfully familiar. A little background for you all: The parent behind this dot com is General Hobby. They operate under more than a few names on eBay & other sites. "Best-Buy", "RedHot Hobbies" & at least one other but I could not locate it in my saved e-mails. But more to the point, I have done business with them recently. You will get your product in either excellent condition or not, 50-50 shot as they do not unpack the models from china before they ship them out. Shipping time is also 50-50. Shop their different sites and eBay because they have aLOT of different prices. You could get a good deal, or NOT. Finally if you do by chance wind up in the bottom 50% you will need the following: RICHARDYAN, Ph.(909)581-8873 for some reason Tuesdays about 10:30 AM PST. Email = [email protected] If you do need a part they will send it sooner or later a canopy for a Polecat took three weeks, forgot how many e-mails and it took a week of phone calls to figure out the Tues. AM thing. I ordered 2 polecats 1 came in good, 1 not so good. See, 50-50. Best to all and hope you don't need any of this info.

Tracy

rc-hide-n-hope

My Feedback: (5)

OH, PS... Forgot one Very Important thing. ONLY PAY BY Pay-PAL and ONLY with the CREDIT CARD OPTION.  They know Pay-Pal's Policy on dispute claims and Pay-Pal has to deal with the credit card company's. Dont wait more than 25 days.

Tracy

ram3500-RCU

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Perhaps Glacier Girl will chime in here. He ordered one from them and has some encouraging input to share about them, IMO. I'll let him elaborate if he likes.

JRMS

Tracy, Thankyou for the heads-up.

rc-hide-n-hope

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Hi All Again,

Just wanted to clarify & make clear. My intent was and is Not to Flame these people, only to state Factual information. I got a really good deal on the 2 planes, $88.00 apiece, not the $132.96 or the $123.23 that they had listed under other sites. I just had a heck of a time getting a damaged part replaced. More so than I've experienced with any other dealer. My planes came double boxed in the original outer boxes shipped from China, (still stapled shut) that is why I said they do not check them.
On average I receive at least one order a month directly from Hong Kong & have made some very reliable contacts that save me a ton of money, incidentally where I got the tip to check them for this particular plane. I will be happy to share them with anyone interested, Just PM me.(I do not sell anything, I just build)
As you may note, I have very few post & that is because I am too busy reaping the wonderful info I get from these threads. I could not imagine building my planes without it. The P-38 is my all time favorite, just haven't found the one I want to build yet.
Just trying to give something helpful back - no offense intended.
Best to All,
Tracy

ram3500-RCU

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Maybe It was me that was misunderstood. Sorry if that is the case. Your post didn't sound to me like a flame, I just know of a recent incident where they had had only one left of something, they had checked it out prior to shipping and found it was damaged, and promptly refunded the guys money with their apologies. This just within the last few days. Now this seemed to be contrary to your experience, but perhaps they have gotten better. Can't say for sure. Just thought it was worth noting. They could have kept the guys money, and just waited till they had more stock to ship out. I too was just trying to get some facts out there for consideration.

Glacier Girl

My Feedback: (4)

Yep, what Gary said. Was nice of them to at least call and let me know what happend. Seems like most of the sites showing these birds are not taking the time to keep the availablity updated. I hit 4 or 5 places already that have shown it in stocok, and after I order, I either get a call or email that it's not. [&:]

Not going to let it bother me, I'll build something else until they're back in stock. May play with either a scratch build or maybe a kit this time, but it will be a twin boom


rc-hide-n-hope, appreciate the info. Anyhow, if it's a P-38 other then a Yellow or a Zirolli, I built probably every one out there, so if you take the leep and need a hand give me a holler.


Murry, yeah I ran into that on my first one. On mine the covering underneath was brown. I believe they spray em with a latex paint to give it that flat color. You can use something like 409, Fantastik, or such to remove the fingerprints. As for paint I had Lowes match American Traditions brand flat latex house paint for mine, and it came out almost dead on color match wise. I ended up shooting the whole bird in it for the top and had em mix up a light gray for the bottom. It held up much better to fingerprints and such.
I thinned it with water and shot it on with a spray gun.

JRMS

Very Nice.
What set up are you using and how does it fly? What brand of spinner are you using? I hadn't seen anyone offering a counter.

The latest here is wrestling with the access door. I remade the end caps of my door. I bought some rare earth magnets from Horbor Freight, mounted a couple, should work.
I took the plane to the club meeting and got some more ideas. A fresh set of experienced eyes spotted that by shifting the door on the hinge I would have a better fit. Thank you Jack[sm=thumbs_up.gif].
And I have been doing paper cut-outs of the cowl openings. Practicing.

JRMS

[sm=50_50.gif] Just had one of the magnets jump onto my hand-saw blade. My first thought was "Glad that wasn't my receiver..." . And now I'm worried about the RX being
close to the magnets. I've seen foamies using magnets to hold canopies in place near RX's. Has anyone heard or experienced problems related to using magnets?

JRMS

Here are some of the cut-outs for reveiw. The first set would alllow maximum air. Second set more scale.

ram3500-RCU

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I use magnets to 'clean up' the signal on my 72mhz stuff.

ram3500-RCU

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Again, you want at least a 1 to 4 ratio of incoming and outgoing air respectively, for good cooling. Unless you plan to open up the side vents as I did, or have rather large holes in the cowl bottoms, I would think twice about opening the front up much more. Larger front openings alone do not necessarily mean better cooling. As we well know, the last thing you want on a twin is an overheating engine.

JRMS

Signal clean-up with magnets is a new one on me.
Yeap, Larger air outlets prevent the air from bottle necking. May cooler heads prevail.

JRMS

I'm going to hold off on changing the front of the cowl. Seeing the engines mounted will help me decide the changes I will make. Probably a mix of the two, mid-size.

JRMS

I repositioned the door on the hinges, which helped greatly. But the lower right corner still had a pucker. I trimmed and reglued the doors front rib.
It sits nicely without being held now.

JRMS

This is a Jack-pot of a find for me. I found these drawings at http://www.socalvalue.com/airace/p-38/p38.htm

They should be helpful to anyone doing scale detail. Now to make the pilot ladder.

I have to remind myself that this plane is sport scale, and not to get carried away.
I took the photos of the pod to compare to the drawings, and to help judge the ladder size.

JRMS

Here is my first sketch of the ladder and the inside of the pod. I have to figure where to compromise with the ladder.
Built the way I have it drawn, the top ladder brace will hit the wing when retracted.[&o]

JRMS

Another item for the list of things to do #9 Recess the wing servos. I'm not sure which way I want to accomplish this.
Just mount them deeper? Or, mount them on their side. When I get to that point, the wing structure will
probably help make up my mind.

JRMS

Here's the progress of the ladder. The main square tube is 5/32" with 1/8" square inner support.
I used the Dremel for the cutting. Harber Freight 4.8v cordless screwdriver with the inset drill bits for
starting holes that I finish making square with the hobby files. Next, to solder it together.
I still have to find the right pivot point and pull point.

Glacier Girl

My Feedback: (4)

Murry, very nice work.
Couple of things, the props I used on mine were MAS gasser versions, off the top of my head they were I think 16x10x3 that I cut down to 14's. It's a P-38, gotta have props spinning the right way.

Ladder work is looking good as for the clearance problem, why not just notch out the wing area, and box in an opening?

Hmm, I keep forgetting you guys are running gassers. Cooling is routed differently on an electric version, where you normally run your airflow over the head, I had to cool an entire motor,esc, and packs. Kinda cheated for exhaust holes, I left the main gear doors off. But I did have to mod the intakes in the cowls. As the motor/esc sit above the cowl vents the airflow as it was wasn't going to work. I ended up building a set of deflectors inside the cowl to redirect the air flow up and around the motor, then exit back through the booms. Did the same on my P-40 too.

As for the aileron servos, laying them down would help clean it up vs the whole top of the servo sticking out. OR, have you looked at torque drives? Nothing exposed, no linkage slop. I've built my own, but you can buy the setups, just add your servo. Not really that bad to install.

I plan on going full enclosed controls on mine, I've got the setups for doing the rudders and elevator pretty much down pat, and have incorporated it in my last couple of builds.

To me having all those horns and control rods hanging out in the breeze just doesn't do it for me. What got me going on internals was when I built the Hangar 9 P40. On it they wanted you to have a pair of servos sticking out of the fuselage back by the tail feathers. YUUUUUCK!!!!!!

Not me! I built and installed my own set ups, and moved everything inboard, and slid the servos up to a more normal location inside the fuselage.

JRMS

Glacier Girl,
I may notch the wing, but I hoped to keep the work to a minimum.
I could make a fake handle on top and keep the ladder separate under the wing.[sm=50_50.gif] Naa, I like the challenge.
Its just going to take longer. I still have a lot of other items to attend to. You mentioned using deflectors to redirect the air flow.
With my engines mounted sideways, I probably should add baffles to get the air up to them.
Just one more thing for me to think about.
It was a couple of months ago, I saw someone showing their torque drives. I've just spent a good while trying to find it with no success.
Where do you recommend seeing a good post showing them? Or if you have some pictures?
I probably would have to see them first hand before trying them.
I wish we had talked before I started this. The thought of inclosing the rudder and elevator control horns hadn't crossed my mind.
Do you have any photos to share on how you did that with this plane?

ram3500-RCU

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Your mounting your engines sideways? I guess entry air area will not be an issue after all with those big holes in the sides of the cowls for the heads and mufflers.